hosts that live at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on into. >> have a seat. there are seats on the wings of the room for people who need a place to sit. you're welcome to stand up course. it's great to welcome everyone to this evening of conversation and discussion about our christian witness in the 21st century. and the occasion is of course, the new book on the benedict option. before i introduce our eminent speaker i want to thank the cosponsors of this event. my name is rusty and one of the sponsors is first things magazine that i edit.

the american conservative and i would like to thank those of us that tried to think about how to move forward in very tumultuous times of deep change not just in our political culture but also there is a sort of spiritual

earthquake abroad in the west in our society and we are trained to think about what that means and how to live faithfully in the current context and so the file magazinfile magazine is ons chair and the american conservative i believe is on everybody's chair and there are subscription card in the magazines ready for you to fill out. we are cheap -- know that isn't true. we didn't provide everybody a copy because assuming getting an audience like this, so many wonderful people we assumed that you are all subscribers already comalready,so you've already gor copy in the mail. but if by chance yours was lost in the mail, we would be happy to provide you a cop copy of the entryway as well as an opportunity to subscribe. enough of the promotion and sales pitch.

it is an honor to introduce the speaker. he's an accomplished author of crunchie con held on take and save your life and then the book we have before us tonight. but i think to mean more than an author, he is a teacher. his blog is a place where people come daily to think about real questions. it's the only place online. they are responded in his column in his blog and ideas are developed more fully. but it's one of the few places you can go where you can think

about and read about joseph, charles taylor, serious ideas and serious people and for that matter, where else can you go and have somebody mention j. gresham and vladimir wolski perhaps even in the same posting? so it is an ongoing seminar for many people throughout the united states as many faithful people are trying to think about how their faith should be lived in the present age. so tonight i would like to introduce his role as teacher and we followed by a panel discussion in his remarks help us teach and think about how to live and as christians in the

21st century. so it is my pleasure and please join me in welcoming him. [applause] >> as your teacher tonight i'm here to say that anybody that buys a copy on the way out you will get extra points. [laughter] is so great to be back. i am happy to see old friends here. we had a chance to say hello, and friends from all over and new friends. i believe that this is a really important time for all of us. there are evangelical, roman catholic and eastern orthodox to come together and talk about what we do in this moment, what we did at the time that we have my own magazine the american conservative for sponsoring this

event. you may have seen some criticism of me. critics are right to a certain extent in our civilization and of the church within it. if you are a faithful christian and not alarmed, i think that you are failing to read the signs of times. i do not claim the world is coming to an end. a world is coming to an end. the western civilization will not survive for long in this most christian faith.

it is obligatory to compare the situation with the decline of the roman empire and its final days it's vital energy has been depleted. the collapse of the forces that sustain us the public intellectual is joseph ratzinger pope benedict the 16th when the air of the throne has been existence for nearly 2,000 yea years. since the fall of the roman empire attention must be paid. what are the signs of the times after all, the west is living at the time of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

peace and prosperity will not last. there's a particular interest to christians. i think most of us realize the christian faith has slaughtered back in secular europe. the united states has long been thought of as a counterexample to the secularization thesis. that is no longer tenable. writing last year in the journal of sociology, scholars say the data now shows the u.s. is on the same downward path of disbelief pioneered by our european cousins. according to the data from the research center, one in three

have put religion aside if they ever picked it up in the first place. those who do remain affiliated in the churches have been formed by a pseudo- religion that resembles christianity and the name only. the sociologist christian smith and his colleagues called its moralistic, therapeutic theism. they use the language and vocabulary of the christianity that in fact the teacher is a malleable feel good jesus like philosophy perfectly suited to the consumer individualist at post-christian society that worships thyself. it is the de facto religion of most young americans today. in the publish from 2013 they found among 18 to 20-year-olds surveyed only 40% said the

personal moral beliefs are grounded in the bible or some other religious sensibility. only 40%. and 61% of those emerging, so-called emerging adults said that they have a moral problem at all with materialism and consumerism and an added 30% expressed some qualms about materialism and consumerism but said it's not worth worrying about. all that society is, it had become is a collection of autonomous individuals out to enjoy life. america has lived a long time off of its christian veneer purply necessitated by the cold war and the interview for the benedict option. that is finally being stripped away by the combination of mass consumer capitalism and liberal individualism, he said.

they coined a phrase that perfectly captures the revolutionary spirit of our time and place. modernity as we know is characterized by a conscious break with the authority of the past and its institutions. solid modernity in which the pace of change is quickened from the past, but still slow enough for most people to adjust. still things seemed solid. but now we have moved into liquid modernity the time at which the pace of change is so rapid that nothing, no new institutions, no habits, no customs have time to solidify. in liquid modernity the most successful person is the one that has no allegiance beyond himself and himself interest. he could change loyalties and believe as well to serve his own preference and that world there

is no solid ground anymore. from a christian perspective, i liken modernity to the great flood of the bible. all of the familiar landmarks are very quickly being submerged in swept away. when i go to the catholic and evangelical colleges to talk about the benedict option, i am often shocked, i should be surprised that i am shocked by hearing from professors to say y so very few of their student even those that come out of christian homes and churches and christian schools, they know very little about the basic facts and basic narratives. this blog cannot in my view be turned back. the best we could do is to construct arcs within which we can ride it out and make it across the dark sea of time to a future that we do find dry land again and can start to rebuild,

recede and renewal. so what is the benedict option and what does it have to do with this scenario it comes from the final paragraph of the 1981 book after virtue. and that'in that book the philor explained how enlightenment modernity overthrew the old resource of order but the enlightenment couldn't produce an authoritative replacement. it's been unraveling for some time now and in mcintyre's view it is reaching a point of reckoning. liberalism is not sufficient to do the necessary work of binding the society together but giving its members purpose. in the book's conclusion, mcintyre also compared the present time to the collapse though he indicated that the wealth of the skewers how

fragile they really are on the inside. in the post-imperial roman times, he said, some men and women of virtue quit trying to shore up the existing social order and instead focused on building new forms of community and the traditions of the civilizations remains in the various future. today it is a new benedict. known today as the founder and patron saint of europe porn four years after the last roman emperor abdicated and was sent down to the city as a young man to complete his education. what benedict sau saw and it is costing him he wanted to seek the will for his life.

he founded a monastery is governed by the constitution called the rule of saint benedict. the rule itself is a template for the running of a monastery that he called a school for the lord's service. it's not a book of spiritual secrets, it is a book that sets out an order for living for the sake of trading in the spiritual life. if you've read the book the rule of saint benedict you may be shocked by the mystical sayings. it is as plain as meat and potatoes and he would never guess from reading it a ke the y role that this book played in the civilization. after benedict died the monasticism exploded. they taught them how to pray but

also how to grow things and make things skills that have been lost in a catastrophe that was the fall of rome the stormy waters that obliterated roman civilization. they are set out to make rome great again but because he sought to figure out how to serve the board and community during the tenable crisis, and

everything else, every good thing that came after the load from that decision. i write about the monastery as it is known today and i interviewed them about how the core values and practices can be applied to everyday christian life outside of the monastery, prayer, work, hospitality, cynicism, stability, community, and the daily life of these things are together in balance to lead among the life-giving order with a sense of the divine presence all around us. they told me the monastery and its life of christ focused prayer as a sign of contradiction to the modern

world. he told me come up with some of the guard rails disappeared into the world risks the cliff but we are captured by the lights and emotions of the modern life that we don't recognize the danger and the forces of dissolution from popular culture are too great for the individuals or families to resist on their own and we need to invest in the communities of faith. what does this look like for the ordinary christians, catholic and otherwise that are called to live in the world and does the option called for them to head for the hills and build high balls to keep them as they? dot apple. we hav have to begin july is whn have to give angela is one of have to begin july is when we fulfill the great commission. we have to serve their neighbors or we fail to serve the board. with all thoughts of withdraw out of your mind that is not the

benedict option calls for, but it does call for a strategic separation from the everyday world. what do we mean by pat -- by that? we have to have a separation for the cycle should and in this society that dissipating forces outside culture is overwhelming. we cannot expect to go out in the world and keep the candlelit anymore than we can walk outside the church. a couple of nights ago i was with a church historian and family robert louis wilton who was an inspiration for the benedict option that he wrote in 2004 and talked about the memory of the christianity and how vitally important it is for the

church today to tell itself its own story because we are forgetting and i asked them, he had read the option and i said what do you think we should do and he said it's all there in the book, take the book and to what it says. to get that endorsement from somebody i respected and admired is quite an honor. here's the paradox of the benedict option. if it is the will of god means for it to be at the church is going to have to spend more time away from the world deepening its commitment to god, scriptu scripture, the christian history and tradition and to each other. we cannot give to the world what we do not have. yes, we should engage with the world thought were the expense of our fidelity in the sense of

ourselves as people support. let me illustrate what i mean. the lord spoke from the letter that tells his people in their exile to integrate into their life and he brought them into exile for their own purpose and plan to deliver them when they but for the time being he wanted them to settle. but this is from jeremiah, do not let the prophets and those among you deceive you. do not listen to the dreams that you encourage them to have. in the community there are what the prophets but with the jewish people exactly what they wanted to hear. they told them in other words a popular live. the jeremiah was a prophet of

the lord. we might even say that because jeremiah lived outside of the exile community have babylon, he could hear the words voice more clearly. somehow though they had to figure out how to obey the command to integrate into the society. the state officials when the king ordered his officials to bow down the false idol they refused him as we know from the story he was thrown into a fiery furnace and it didn't consume them. how did they do it, how did they live a life that was completely

integrated in the establishment and again they were state officials, but also at the same time develop such a strong faith they were willing to lose everything even their own lives before betraying their god and not bowing down to that idol is that is the question facing christians today in our own babylonian exile here in post-christian america. we have to somehow walk a middle path between christian fundamentalists that reject everything about the world and the accommodationist that one od the world so much that they rationalize for the sake of preserving their comfort and privileges. an engaging the culture is something we have to do but it shouldn't be -.

if we don't change our way of living. i write about education and the workplace in prayer and worship and family community, the way that we use technology and the way that we think about and approach sex and sexuality. there is no time to get into all of those but i do want t to saya few words about one area that is

on the minds of a lot of people right now, politics. as i was writing the book, like i did almost everybody in this room i expected hillary clinton to win the presidency. had that happened, the future of religious liberty would have been very bleak. it didn't happen though. today, i hear some conservative christians breathing a sigh of relief as if donald trump's victory sounded at all clear. don't believe it, not for one second. i am as pleased by the nomination as anybody. but i know well that we have not seen yet, and we may not see at all, the religious liberty order that we all wanted to see from this president. nor do we see much enthusiasm to pass religious liberty legislation. my great fear is that conservative christians may end up having been played by fools in this administration. i desperately hope i'm wrong. but what be serious. even if donald trump were a saint, he could turn back the

cultural tsunami of the liquid modernity. that is because it is far beyond the power of politics to do. if america had elected a cross between billy graham we would still need the benedict option. i should point out like i said i was writing about the benedict option a decade before the decision to have shocked a lot of christians and realization about where we actually stand in this culture. if same-sex marriage did not exist, we would still need the benedict option. the problem is the culture and a civilization that has turned its back on christian orthodoxy. the problem is us. in dante's divine comedy for me one of the great catches is when

he finds himself of the terrorist of anger on the holy mountain and he tells them the violence and social breakdown how can we turn it around. the world is blind and you come from the world. and he goes off and kills them if you want to know how to change the world and turn things around concert with yourself, look inside your own heart, because the problem starts right there. the problem is with you for your teacher and speaker tonight. recovery and rebuilding the world we lost i believe is going to be the work of centuries. i believe that christians have to stay active in the conventional politics working as we are able for the common good,

and especially fighting to protect the religious liberties. but we cannot afford to make the same mistakes as a prayer generation of religious conservatives. the old religious right thought that the problem was the american culture was fundamentally moral and of course i'd could choose and capture the political and judicial officers we could restore the republic to its moral footing. they were wrong. republicans kept winning. the fact that obscured the loss of the culture. i believe that the politics in the option should be a vocalist and catholic in its scope. it's more important to strengthen churches and start with schools and build up the local community and it is too to short of the imperium. i want america to prosper, but it is far more important to be a faithful christian and it is to be a good america. the two shouldn't conflict but when they do more and more, we have to know on whose side we

are all on. you cannot talk to law professors, doctors, educators and others who are living on the compliance of the religious liberty debate and remain sanguine about its future. those that do not prepare those under their authority for that kind of future our failing in their duties. but that is in the future. as i see it, the greater problem right now is the study erosion under restlessness of individualism, hedonism and consumerism. we also have to face the fact that in some quarters on our own conservative side, we are seeing the rise of an ungodly racism that we have to repudiate. if we are going to stay true to our faith i believe we have to listen to the voices from outside the right here and right now. that is authoritative voices from the christian past especially the premodern era.

how else are we going to be able to tell the difference between those that speak comforting lies that we all want to hear and those who like jeremiah preach the word of god. we must be aware of the religious leaders and teachers are content in the cultural order. the italian catholic layman and community leader who is one of the new and very different saint benedict's of time. when i visited his community in italy i asked how do you guys do it this is marvelous and he said to me when he discovered nothing. we are only rediscovering a tradition that was locked away inside an old box.

the auction is a project of preserving in memory what it is to be christian. hophope this memory plus desiref we remember who we are, the desire to make those memories again we have every reason to hope that we cannot ignore the warning when we first told him about the option. they told me that if the families and communities in the west are catholic, protestant, orthodox do not use some form of the benedict option, then they are not going to make it. thank you. [applause]

>> we are going to bring the panel up and i would like to turn things over to peter who was responsible for the history two years ago and really this evenings event was his he took the initiative to make this happen so thank you and you may introduce your panelist. i should quickly add that this event wouldn't have happened without working together with the staff at the american conservative, so we are very glad to be together tonight and thank you for those important and timely words and the purpose of the panel is to go deeper and

farther into the themes that you suggested. particularly the words take it and give it. there's been a lot of high flying from the helicopter analysis of the option but i think what is really knowledgeable in the book is how practical and down-to-earth a lot of it is. this is not a series but it's something we can talk about doing and i hope that's one thing we focus on tonight. we have the great distinguished panel and welcome each of you starting from my right, your left. ross is the author of a number of books including on the topic tonight bad religion how we became a nation of heretics. he's contributed to a range of

publications including the regular columnist for one of our daily newspapers. [applause] [laughter] next to him is the founder of public square strategies focusing on faith and politics. he directed for president barack obama blank 2012 campaign and served as one of the youngest staffers in history and helped the engagement on issues like adoption and efforts against human trafficking in his excellent new book, reclaiming hope, lessons learned in the obama white house just came out this year, so welcome, michael. jacqueline is the director of the black church and policy studies that dedicated the

movement at home and abroad and holds a phd from harvard university where she was a doctoral fellow at the john f. kennedy school of government. and with her husband, welcomed by eugene. she cofounded the community center in massachusetts so she has been doing a lot of the work that we have been hearing about and she's also a contributor and next to me here raised in the a family in minnesota was the bishop of the community movement and he helped establish and serve back to the states a couple of months ago. hopefully he's gotten over his jet lag. if you need tips on hunting he is the man and so now it's back we will jump into the discussion

tonight and the way that it's going to work jacqueline and randall will follow and then we will have a discussion and see where it goes. i think that it will be very exciting. thanks for finally turning this into a book because i feel like i have been on panel having arguments with rethinking of the option for as long as i've been a journalist, so it's wonderful to have a book to tell people to go by and argue about and disagree with and so on. usually when i've been on those panels, there's usually a debate this very well and good and we

should argue we should be heading for the hills and then he rips off his glasses and says i'm not saying we should head for the hills and then it goes from there. so i won't play the role of the interlocutor but i will go half way and sahalfway and say that'e on the option is he is right even if he's wrong by which i mean this was a very gloomy portraitportrait but he just pae west and in particular the united states and for those of you that occasionally read the newspaper, you know that i am not noted for my mild optimism. and yet even i occasionally reading his blog and the pages of the book sometimes creased my eyebrow up a little bit and say is it's really all that bad of all of that and i think that there are some reasons to be

doubtful in the sense that i generally have less confidence about all predictions about the future than i did since the startling rise of donald trump over the last 18 months or so, including especially my own prediction but extending to the extrapolations into the future and i think that we are at a place in the story where we can't know for certain what we are looking at when we look at the trend is that as the collapse of the cultural christianity and a collapse in people's identification with a faith they never really held to begin with that has some effect on the life of the church but doesn't lead to a netherlands and belgium style collapse

meaning no offense. but we don't know if that is the scenario that we are looking at or if we are looking at something more complete and sweeping and there are a lot of things that make our situation even more un- notable. we are ten or 15 or 20 years depending how yo you time it tyo the great experiment which may only be accelerating. but there is a sort of unknowability about what the abt distinct social life and what it's doing to the religious life and childhood and adolescence in all thesand all these things thl become clear to us the next 20 or 30 or 200 years but the same is true between the religious life and our unexpectedly unsettled politics in the west

and between religious life and various other forms of technology and so on. so there's a long list of reasons why i'm just not certain if he's right about where we are going overall. but in certain ways i don't think it matters that much because i think where we are right now is a place where many of the things he calls for are necessary and useful and important no matter what happens in ten or 20 or 30 years. if we were not living in a more fragmented individualistic and sort of post-humanitarian landscape than almost any generation in america in american history has enjoyed before. we are living in an increasingly

opposed united states in the sense that many of the things that tocqueville described as distinctive about the u.s. in the early 19th century that remains distinctive about the u.s. down until the 1960s inarguably into the basic resilience of the local community and local religious life to bottom-up social order and enough landscape it's a situation where we try t were td resilient christian communities and resilient communities, period. if you are part of the society for secular humanism you can have your own option if you really wanted. or maybe not. we could argue that later. but building the resilient communities may not be the answer but it is an incredibly

important answer to the challenges of our time. and i talked about this a little in a column i wrote this week that one of the ways i think about the usefulness of the option is on the one hand, a i think the extremism of the advocacy should hit home for people. there are people that should read -- i will sort of mildly break the rules and talk about one of my fellow columnists where he said something about these. everyone from where they are perhaps should take one step in a more drastic production and

that is one important way to read the benedict option to say don't assume that you need to, you know, revolutionized the welfare -- liturgy or pull your kids out and build an organic farm and so on. assume that you need to take one step for now. one step towards a more way of life. so that is one thing. another thing that occurred is we don't have a surplus in the united states is going to be the same thing they did is something to think about but my wife has forbidden me to become a monk so that is for someone else. thank you. [laughter] [applause]

in the ongoing debate in the country thacountry about that tt extremism and culturalism in the party that she needs made a provocative argument. she told the party, quote, we don't have too much islam. we have little christianity and a few discussions about the field of mankind. germany, she argued, should view this moment as an opportunity to have a more robust conversation about the values that guide us and about our judeo christian tradition.

with its increasing tendency to emphasize political and social action and the primary way to serve god the individual character development and overall christian sanity and well-being. those that identify as christians do not have their lives between order and this will not protect them in times of testing. it's true and important in the central concern. one of the gifts of the book is its confidence that it is possible to follow jesus today if we can order our lives to make it so. the willingness to share the conviction is a great blessing and encouragement. for those that reduce to the political engagement or

disengagement strategy are not dealing with the book honestly. it's also to disassociate the option from politics. he is a political commentator and writer who includes a chapter in the option as well as repeated references to the political and social circumstances. as he mentioned today, the benedict option was introduced in the book about political conservatives. he sources the motivation as quite explicitly with the threat of extinction. again and again he warns that it poses an extensional threat at the survival is at stake and he seems to be particularlyicully apparently concerned as the is e people's group in western civilization.

the. there'there isan anxiety to the faith as motivation for the benedict option. and it can lead people to see the christian community for cultural security which is just another kind. these historical references, the context that is laid out among the current situation works to confirm the existence and dominance of the threat of secularism, progressivism and by fully affirming the feeling shared by many other corresponding feelings of isolation and marginalization that fueled the political engagement. to redirect the passions of

those that appeal in battle to towards the development of the strong community that would reinforce and support faith rather than the more general public minded efforts. but instead of using the challenge is to simply point us towards the ultimate truth, and that we ought to be living in a way that is shaped the option frequently uses the circumstances the shelves. they view them as a savior not pass a culture of the crime but the symptom of it which is something that i agree with. indeed i've said before that after decades of telling them they are not a christian nation, representing the acceptance of the claim that concession to the power-based politics and it is a

reprieve to the three commissioners particularly though trump offers to challenges to the other context including. i want to get to other arguments and so i will just state it more briefly perhaps we can discuss it later division for political engagement is very much constrained by what you view as a possibility of th for politicl engagement that we might have. >> his analysis is an identification of the lack of formation that was evident in the religious right. the cake wasn't completely baked before they got involved. the failure of the religious right wasn't just because the culture had gotten ahead of th

them. the super instance as if it was external to the direction of the culture and politics. instead it is worth considering whether the left might be more forgiving of countercultural views on sexuality now. if we have been more forgiving of their countercultural views when we were dominant. it's worth considering whether it would be so scorned in our time if it had not been wrongly invoked by some conservative christians as it is a justification for the aids crisis for the american fringe. this limited view of the recent political history extend its to the present. after a couple sentences on christians working with the gop on the mainstream economics and liberals on sex trafficking, poverty, aids and the like, rob writes there is one cause to

receive all the attention orthodox christians have left the national politics and the just liberty. i agree that religious liberties of the utmost importance and i concluded as one of only two issues to focus in the final chapter o of my recent book. i worked on these issues intensely that i want to raise two issues with such and exclusive focus. the first is that shortly, christians political area of concern can extend beyond religious freedom. certainly there is a constructive guidance particularly when it comes to issues of life investing in the institutioninstitutions for wern formation will likely go longer than the political efforts, but stole this from the budget was released that would drastically cut the social safety net and it's a budget that cuts meals on wheels that increases military

spending by $50 billion. the congressional budget office says the current health plan by the administration could force 24 million off of insurance. arrange extends to these issues into the witness to the politics shouldn't bthatpolitics shouldno advocating for our own interest just like another special interest group. the benedict option also doesn't tell the story about the religious freedom in this country with the exception of the reprieve it is unburdened some that there is no victory or more holistic picture of the landscape so they might have a view that is more nuanced includes the education and focuses on the institutions but he doesn't mention the paper.

in other words into the religious freedom on. despite the fact the obama administration argued that the ministerial exceptions shouldn't be considered they did so with open surprise. he almost laughed at the solicitors general's arguments. there's other examples of the positive stories of the obama administration and the national day of prayer in the court and rejecting the police from the

secularists. after eight years of expectations and lobbies from aclu and the administration would restrict groups that hire on federal grants and the obama administration is gone and the moves haven't been taken. they sided with the religious freedom on hobby lobby. this week in washington we were warned. supermarket aisles were empty and people stock up on supplies. it took them hours before the snow hit for it to become clear we would only receive two to 4 inches of snow. the city would be strained and some people would lose power and there would be a cost but the challenge would be over. it's a good thing people didn't go underground and convinced that it was inevitable or they might still be eating spam in a storm cellar in th instead shovd

their neighbors driveway which leads me to the primary critique i have on the option which is from the historical and ... and it collects one of the principal conclusions which is that this secular age is not a time of domination of the secular but a time of cross pressure. if you think it is secularism with no worthy then perhaps out of the scarcity we might be led to downgrade the public participation. if you accept the general public where would the risk and proclaiming the truth of the gospel. gospel. how separate was the proclamation from trading in on the currency of the accepted narrative supported by the cultural power.

they can enter the public square with the flourishing of the neighbors had come alongside them to see the answers that we know are available. and this is where he offers his most valuable contribution. christians cannot offer what they do not have. and as he writes, the mission is not political success but fidelity for christians we do not seek victory but faithfulness. not because of the cultural circumstances but for the call to follow jesus transcends the geography and time into the cultural baggage drawing on the movement of history rather than the western civilization as an option for all orthodox christians it is an option that we should take up insofar as the board leaves us guided not by the legalism but one of the models in the book explains that

which is the benefit and worship of the individual in the community drawing near to god. despite the challenges of modernity, the kingdom of god is available. as rob described tonight god knew exactly where. they wrote later in the introduction to the conspiracy of the individual christians still here today whoever hears these words of mine is like those intelligent people that build their houses upon raucous standing firm against every pressure of life. how it would be if the understanding of the gospel gosl would allow them to apply, i will do that. i will find out how.

we believe it will be considered a great gift from god to us all and a blessing from the nation so thank you for this book and your willingness to openly share it and discuss it with us this evening. it is intelligent, big hearted readers thareaders to get an hot

critique of one's work. that's why i didn't give up on my friends and i also want to thank them for that. if we quickly go through some things because i know we are running a little late. the question of extremism talking about the comments now, it said that when the world is death, we have to shout. i admit and i own that some of the rhetoric i use in the option especially in the beginning is alarmist and strong but i'm trying to shout and wake up and church that is not paying attention. in washington after the event, i was talking with a senior administrator and i asked them do you see a lack of engagement or awareness about the christian congregations in threat to the e religious liberty and

institutions base. he said it's not just you and he told me what they had to go through in california last year when the state tried to punish the orthodox colleges. he said if it hadn't been for the archdiocese in los angeles they don't know what would have happened. he said this is an existential threat and of a college administrator said it is one of the great bizarre mysteries that completely disengaged the local churches from the serious threats. if i had exaggerated in the book it helps to say we have a problem and we have to get engaged. i think he's right we don't know if this is going to be a complete cultural collapse.

or it something more like what russell talked about in his book onward about the burning away of the cultural humanity. i am grateful because humanity tends tthehumanity tends to sere served as a fascination of taking the gospel the gospel spy been a supporter of the gospel and i'm happy for that to change. on the other hand if the country moves beyond even the notional allegiance to the christian teaching and precepts we are in serious trouble for example, euthanasia, genetic engineering and that is not something that we can take lightly. i agree with father joseph ratzinger that is the benedict option in my view. he predicted that the future of the church would be one where we are poorer and weaker in the

there are far fewer of us in the west, but the people that remain are going to be those that believe in the gospel and they act as creative minorities and can transform the world. ..

>> >> but on the matter if i am being too extremist with my analysis i understand that makes people uncomfortable and is possible i have gone too far but i have to say how do account for these statistics what christian smith has found about the christian orthodox clerics how do you account for the specifics of the millenials to rise to the top? this is serious. but you have to pay close attention and wonder what you need to do to make this happen.

but i do believe that religious liberty is of paramount importance. and according to what we know him believe is true especially educational institutions. but i did say that christians should engage another political causes the as well. in to prioritize the right for religious liberty. i have to condemn the fate comedienne for distorting my work. [laughter] there is good news on the legal front even just like

coffee lobby but the broader point stands that as the country grows more secular with the importance of religion a christian professor at the elite american law school said they would be shocked to be utterly ignorant of the senior institutions practicing religion. play word training the future members with the future of religious liberty in america. thank you for your comments.

>> we are looking forward to what you have to say. >> thanks for giving me the opportunity and think about what is an important book for me the original benedictus option and to talk about four things quickly that the original model is there a danger with western culture or civilization? around the issue of religious freedom and with

my own experience with the original mandates to say they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread every one was filled with odd at the many wonders for all level leavers were together to have everything in common . everyday they continued to meet together with a glad insincere heart but to enjoy uh favor of all people this is the model for question live the devotion to prayer

and fellowship and i do believe that the church is very weak as a result of not having taken this model seriously. going to the harvard christian fellowship for i thought this was supposed to turn your life upside-down to reorder your priorities. it was business as usual. with the concern of consumers some to get the harvard degree to be extremely comfortable financially.

there is a pentecostal interchurch to believe that god has the power even in the 21st century and it is something found in very few churches. so to have everything in common in to be separated from each other and very often in a when will the end? there is a time for fellowship for connection to radical because they met

every day. and to take care of each other. so i celebrate this book because it holds up what is talked in the bible and has been overlooked but the feeling of completion of christianity and of those who were actually european with these urban developments of christianity to move from africa and into europe and that so much was

written in north africa. in to survive the fall of the west and today christianity is truly a global religion. one other very for christians living in sub-saharan africa. one in a tone in asia so the share of the population from 9% and 63% in 2010. unlike a century ago as we

talk about the benedick option that we take care not to alienate the part of the population. the right to give my eight kids this book to read but it is a written to a broad enough audience. so to draw on the dynamic of south america with cartridges in the united states laugh laugh also about religious freedom to the role of the presiding bishop and the threat to christian colleges in

california. this is truly important because a lot of millenials sea that as an excuse for discrimination. and to champion the cause of people that have led and divided to come to life. and the millenials or as a result of that. and then to suffer the most egregious forms of communication and those that inspired the ancestors to lead. but those that inspired us

to leave the movement can rehab allow lovell love credibility that is unparalleled. and touche indian the port. that is my personal experience. and when we were the graduates of harvard fit the original benedict option of an of why we live in communities to be the authentic radical character with the sincerity to carry it out.

and then to travel down so we will back and drawing strength to bind us together to share one another burdens and economically. then to be a simple living. end with the spiritual lives

uh challenges among the pour it is even harder to resist if you never had it. so those are the challenges that we face it is very challenging. them grateful for the book and the chance to encourage people to embraces "the benedict option." [applause]

said net that's great. that resonates among heart. i am not a scholar or a speaker. i know more about drugs i gave up the carrier and coming tonight from the eight will. now want to start to arrive thinking ride about that as christians or faithfully followed jesus which is what it is all about. it is encouraging people are paying attention but this is

the reverse of my inexperience. the first point i would like to make building a little church allows christians to engage more and more meaningful with fellow human beings. assimilationism interest but the stronger the center like jesus the more daring the outreach. my own life is an illustration of the past 30 years my wife linda and i have the numbers of a christian communal church

that is almost 100 years old and in which we share all things, and. and what you've seen from the church community. and to engage more deeply and more broadly in society. to be both farm kids to grow up no is called a dysfunctional family and in an abusive situation. families were nominal question but faith in jesus

did not mean anything to us. by the mid '20s we were well on the road to have a house and to be very unhappy. through a bible study mendez be read in the book of facts the realization that they shared everything and it would shock tests to take that in. but that movement of repentance of becoming the holy spirit. with the search for a life of community. this lasted for about five

years as it was a challenging and exciting time and then to come across the writings his depth of understanding for the kingdom that answer the question that community life for us is the inescapable we must live there because we are compelled by the same spirit with the time and time again. with early christianity. postal thrill me today as much as they did 30 years ago. but since 1987 with that segment of society.

into have plenty of weaknesses to show what community life makes possible. for the past 17 years we found it a community down there with other members. relive general strongly up. there are many more king bruce but but it was that contact that happens invitations with the community members we did home care and home repairs this extended to my work as

a police chaplain. with the emergency medical services. as per customer ship we collaborated with sustainable agriculture were techniques that authority made a measurable difference in our area. and the young people the volunteer and we support them financially. posting thousands of guests in australia from all over southeast asia to woo the leaders leading up to be unforgettable moment with one of the $0 we have

visited church commission these would we have done much as a solid nuclear family? >> there are individuals who achieve this level by force of personality better brings me to the second point does society, a specially christians and those with the extraordinary talents. those to be of the andy young for simply annoying people. [laughter] and consuming to life by a

share a common meal every day with brothers and sisters. those who preach engagement think how we can bear the burdens outside us strong community is. if we are engaging the world? pope franciscan something right but not in the third point building a strong communal church is our calling. my constructive criticism to take his own proposal seriously enough. this then important document but why stop if you can go back to the original source of christianity?

is this deal nueva adenauer of to teach the sermon on the mount becomes practical the early church was far more radical to turned the world upside down. in to share everything in common and then they refuse to participate in violence of any kind to serve as abortion or the death penalty. of sexuality and family life

and then to revolutionize the society nobody can accuse dearly questions of withdrawal. but this is not a life for the faint hearted. requires all or nothing. complete simplicity requiring nothing less. >> it would not be enough but that happened to dovetail nicely into but how many are like the rich old because he could not part with his profession the? to make here in the church is not but because of the jury following jesus.

we live in church community but the life that i lived as a calling from jesus in the best with the have found to follow him this is unjust for future questions are the most radical with the new life that jesus offers for all people. has put in the final chapter we find others like us in communities schools for the service and redo this for no other reason that we love him. aidman. thank you. [applause]

>> thinks so much for your kind words and constructive criticism. talk about, church taking too long but when the presage it is time to settle in. we will be here a while. i appreciate about the danger to conflate christianity with western coulter. it is say global religion but to find baffle this of christianity but alatas as

conservative or christians look to africa or even in julies europe. but we all live in the west. that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church those can take part with an example for those who live in the global south coronation of to make that work right here. but do encourage fellow christians to immerse themselves with the wisdom

of these orthodox church in that we have so much to learn from each other and then to learn from the evangelical brothers which is of great to blessing for me. since the road about the benedick option to know their strength or we -- or weakness. we'll have to worry together . that brings us to your comments about the black church. i did not feel i had the moral authority to appropriate the experience but in fact, is somebody who grew up in the deep south i know the black church in a

condition complete the of unknown. but i did nazi a right to compared to what we're dealing with historical a bet is my hope that the benedictus option to write the same moral experience about the chartwell education group. and sister i hope you're right the book. [laughter] also the benedictus option is just a general concept not lead to a sheet program but our history in the future but new-line different florida are movement for the roman catholics than the

evangelicals spirit and an allied jesuit to be the greatest exponent among evangelicals. some days to get this man a book contract be casino's how to make them dundee 80 logical idiom and this is where we'll come together in a church that ignores the nomination and died appreciate what you have to say best this conversation.

i don't have all the answers i need to learn from roman catholic herman's. because we're all in this together i am convinced of that to put it should in such a beautiful encapsulation of the option but told me i eight asked her what to people who say that they go to the north will catholic parishes and come together in a community with their center for prayer for the mass for scripture study or sports so what gsa

to people and the outboard community? she said that is the true redo engage. to be more confidently engage the world because we know who we are not. so if this is about strategic withdrawal but this been an plan not advocating fervor betty's books but the home church needs to know. so talk about the jury a of a following jesus. but this is really the only

effective witness you will have today. pope benedict 16 there were a couple of of occasions the greatest arguments similar but the produce -- the duty produces these tariff the things the speak to the heart to dot but negative you word rejected and then suddenly cracked over the head peck to half a new bird knowing that there was something greater that is what speaks to people are to be the presence of men and

some medicines soon the new board embedded. >> if you were not joyful you're not doing their right . banks for reminding us of that. [applause] >> there are so many teams so far to pursue any one of them.

>> just to throw a the few things health care this for this evening is about to combustor of this software spirit harrison day one minute reply but i do think one of the objections but the problem of the committee that we talk about that can turn toxic to individual families but so i just wonder to think about the benedick option in and those

that have been hermetically sealed maybe it is the question for roger because not precisely this way that he was living the benedick option before he wrote it. then going back to the hometown with that additional orthodox church of those who read is bogged religiously know that both those projects and how you think about

>> >> to have day rockies

spiritual past i have come to your appreciate how fragile is how ideas can lead us to some dark places that cannot survive. we have to keep in mind the whole spiritual life is a pilgrimage and we've logo's stronger through repentance and prayer and fasting and surveying the lord and others. if i thought you had to do all or don't even try that would be discouraging and as i have been led into deeper repentance or prayer i have found easier to do certain things i once thought

impossible as a christian. when i was suffering with the physical sickness and was given a very strict orthodox prayer ruled that was one hour a day of prayer. my mind is solar busy but i did it balance of obedience after two with three months of lower real struggle i began to notice my heart if growing more still i believe the holy spirit goes through my heart to start making a living but i had to do commit to one hour per day. end i felt that to be the greatest challenge that they

could possibly do and there are other spiritual challenges it isn't a one time thing. >> i understand you sea christianity in the last by a m struggling with of sensitivity to that in the book to level set concern the united states right now continues to be segregated especially in the northeast and in addition there is growing segregation and as

we've moved into a community more locally based with this lack of understanding of other cultures in particular , do we avoid reinforcing? >> i am inspired by a the word of the southern baptist leader on reconciliation purposes important work. it is gospel work for growth one thing i would say is this is a problem we ran into in my home town in minister caved in to say we have to be integrated. his intentions were just but

he did not recognize the african-americans had history going back to the slave days with their own traditions and a black friends that i went to the white church you will never get me back in there. [laughter] just that is not how he was raised to worship he was more pentecostal but that doesn't give the excuse to not fellowship with each other. but the book that has awakened a lot of fuss to the problems of class and how little any of us is the white church and this'll be

an area of creativity figuring out if we think we have to have the whole thing plotted out some people the it is this homeschooling then the guests said might be read hell because you have to have one parent pat home bob to for that christian school but that doesn't mean we should not try. they need to redirect their tightest in efforts to expand that opportunity to the children of the working

for and though working class we have to start somewhere somewhere, . >> i did read very much with you that there was the time as he stumbled around for years and were led into community that i would be very interested in your comments on how the gospel calls us to give up everything for jesus and how the plays and and how does

that play in the? that is the question of the forefront of our mind as unorthodox bridge -- orthodox christian you follow fully and when you for start off you take on the fasting that has been part of the churches tradition but you do it because the is what we do but at what you learn when you did use to the fasting that every don't deny ourselves a small things impossible with the larger things i'm not saying just fasting but to say this is same as sacrificing your life which we have been called to do but i talk in

the book that the entire church needs to be learned by love to eat and drink and i have so much to repentance on and but how the practices could be adopted the practice of fastening adopt

the this is the one where the history of the church the early murders the persecutors of every day of the middle east the vision and elsewhere has something to say to us. to read and orthodox jew along with others of catholics and protestants. and one of the man that was tortured was made to suffer. but they cannot of prison and came to america and the

story said he tells about keeping the faith it is that age appropriate levels. please. so please watch a day in suburban baltimore if he can do this had this defiant the love it and their own there are. >> we can help prepare

ourselves for the true gospel to give everything up for christ. [applause] thanks to all of you who have come to join us if has been a wonderful evening. id has been wonderful to spend this time together to continue those conversations in the days and weeks to come and then to spur one another on banks for joining us and also the panel.

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